


A Welcome Reunion

by Dragonagedumbass



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Mass Effect - Freeform, Reunions, Shakarian - Freeform, ”Short” fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:48:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28394886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonagedumbass/pseuds/Dragonagedumbass
Summary: Commander Taia Shepard escaped from Earth, barely. In her search for help to stop the Reapers she is lead to Palaven’s largest moon to find a Turian Primarch, while she’s there she finds someone who is a very welcome sight in her eyes.First work published on THIS site, It’s part of a much bigger project that I’m working on, Enjoy I guess.
Relationships: Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian, Shepard Oc/Garrus Vakarian
Kudos: 9





	A Welcome Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve grown a bit of self loathing for my writing so I didn’t even want to post this but here we are lol. 
> 
> It’s around 7500 words, it developed into a way bigger thing than I planned

The dreaded sound of a Reaper’s laser beam fired off in the distance as a shuttle car approached Palaven’s largest moon. Taia Shepard was refraining from looking out the window at the destruction to the planet the Turians originated from. Not because the obvious clicked in her head, no, instead due to the fear of reliving the events on earth so soon. 

That child that was in the shuttle car, the sound of the explosion while Taia watched helplessly from The Normandy. Her hands clenched, if it was just Liara in the car she might have shown a bit more emotion, but James was a new crew member. She didn’t show weakness to new crewmembers. She didn’t trust them all immediately, ever. 

“Oh Goddess, look at Palaven…” Liara gasped. Looking at the camera screen, her mouth agape. Taia turned to look for the first time since they began the approach, her fists clenched more when she saw the destruction. There were orange and red spots all over the planet showing the Reapers’ damage on Palaven. “Shepard… Was it like this on earth..?” Liara asked her, her voice soft and faint as she continued to stare in horror.

“Yeah, this but imagine 10 times worse,” Shepard confirmed, her voice unwavering, eyes staring straight at the screen. To James she looked so calm it didn’t make sense, but Liara could see just how upset Taia really was. 

“Wait- Shepard… We have an old friend on Palaven... “ Liara muttered to her friend quietly, putting an arm on her shoulder. Shepard may be good at masking emotions but this would have undoubtedly been hard for her. 

“Fuck. Garrus went back to Palaven awhile back, I forgot.” Taia’s voice was low, her mask of emotional neutrality draining. 

‘No, no no… He can’t be dead, he’s Garrus, he’s been on more missions with me than anyone else I’ve had on my crew. There’s no way he’s dead, he's the best damn sniper I know. He can’t be dead…’ Taia’s mind was racing, every worst imaginable thought flashed in her head. Meanwhile she just gritted her teeth and stared straight ahead, Liara could tell she was having a hard time keeping composure, but didn’t blame her. Taia didn’t know if the person she cares about is even alive or not, most people would be in a full blown panic. But Taia just sat there, teeth clenched, eyes forward. Keeping herself in check to prevent becoming irrational. 

“He’s fine Shepard, you and I both know that he was one of the best people on the team.”

“I know.”

“Pardon me for asking Commander, but what are you two talking about?” James asked Taia, curious as to why the Asari was acting like Shepard just lost someone important to her. Who was on Palaven? Sure Shepard looked a tiny bit rattled but she didn’t look like she was majorly panicking or anything. He just assumed it was due to the fact they were so close to so many Reapers so soon after what happened on Earth.

“Lieutenant, You’re aware of a former member of my crew, Garrus Vakarian, Correct? The Turian Sniper, formerly C-Sec, Helped me kill Saren and Sovereign.” 

“Uh, yeah. I remember you contacted him frequently when you were relieved from duty on Earth. He also came up in some old reports from when Sovereign was still active if I remember correctly”

“Well, he went back to Palaven about 4 weeks ago, it’s been 2 weeks since I’ve heard word from him. I’m worried he didn’t make it off in time, that he’s still fighting in that hell or dead, though...I’m sure he’s fine.” Shepard explained, the sound of another Reaper beam in the distance caused her to slightly tense up a bit, Liara patted her arm, trying to help in the little ways she could.

“Shit, you must really care about your friends, I mean he’s one of the ones you’ve known since Cerberus rebuilt you but...Damn, people on earth weren’t joking when they said you put your crew first.” James chuckled, oblivious as ever. Shepard wondered if all his muscle was really just to make up for the lack of common sense James was exhibiting at the moment.

She cleared her throat awkwardly, trying not to let a small laugh escape. “Lieutenant Vega, Garrus and I are... a bit closer than friends.” She explained, her eyes falling to her sniper rifle while she explained. The destruction outside the shuttle sounded worse the closer they got to the moon. James couldn’t tell but every time Taia heard a Reaper beam fire up, her arm muscles tensed up. She was scared, seeing as she only ever battled one Reaper at a time and nearly died both times she had a right to be. There were hundreds now, all over the galaxy. 

“Oh- Like uh, dating? How does that even work- Wait, no. I don’t want to know that.”

“Thanks for stopping the unnecessary questions lieutenant, it’s not the best time to be snooping around my personal life. Especially if I don’t even know if my second half is still with us…” Shepard said bluntly as the shuttle stopped, while the door opened she stood up and cocked her rifle, sneaking out of the car and behind a cover to scope out the area.

‘Shit, Husks.’ She groaned, looking through the barrel of her gun at the scene. There were a lot of them, no doubt about it. But the thing with husks is that if you have a fast enough reload time and are good at backtracking and staying far off, any decent sniper can pick off the far back ones while the Assault squadmates handle melee and close range fire.

“Alright, James, get up close and give them hell, Liara, stay behind me and use your biotics whenever you can, I’ll pick off any that get too close to James. Let’s just find the Turian Primarch and get out of here before the Reapers realize what’s happening.”

“Aye Aye Ma’am” 

“Got it Shepard.”

The husks came at them in hoards, teeth gnashing and hands clawing at their faces while they tried to dispose of them. Luckily they gained some assistance from a few of the Turian soldiers and managed to push back the monstrosities long enough to reach the base of operation and get inside the metal barricades.

The encampment was pretty empty, though Taia wasn’t surprised due to the fact they were on a moon and the Reapers most likely attacked out of surprise. Still, she was losing more and more hope that Garrus was there. The Raptor-ish looking aliens ran past the group, busy trying to hold the moon, and Palaven in general from the Reapers. 

Navigating to find General Corinthus wasn’t too difficult, though Liara could tell that she was starting to panic a bit. Her sharp-sighted eyes frantically scanned over the base of operation one last time before she walked over to the table the General was staring at while giving orders to a couple soldiers. His face was contorted into a somber expression before he saw Shepard and her crew, walking over to great them. 

“Commander Shepard. I heard you were coming but I didn’t believe it. I’m General Corinthus.” He introduced himself, standard military type greeting. Taia didn’t think much of it, but did notice that he seemed exhausted from the amount of stress the troops were facing. 

“I’m here to pick up Primarch Fedorian sir.” She decided to keep it short and simple, avoid complications and give the man a break. He obviously needed it.

The general looked deep in thought, his mandibles shifted as he sighed heavily, “Primarch Fedorian is dead. The Reapers shot down his shuttle an hour ago as it tried to leave the moon.” He was upset, Taia could easily tell. Must’ve known the Primarch well.

“Shit… That’s going to complicate things,” she said, hearing a groan behind her from James as he also realized it would be more work on their end, She shot him a glare and turned back to Corinthus, “How bad is it General?”

“We just lost four hundred men in half an hour. We set up camps on this moon as a vantage point, to flank the enemy. A sound strategy, Just…”

“Irrelevant…”

“Exactly, the sheer force of The Reapers seems to make them immune to that sort of tactic… The Primarch and his men found that out the hard way…”

“I’m sorry, that’s a big loss for everyone. Reaper bastards…” 400 men in half an hour? Her face paled a bit, if the race with the strongest military in the galaxy was losing men that quickly then Earth hardly stood a chance, let alone her hopes of finding Garrus alive, but she couldn’t react, not here, not now. Instead she continued to act like nothing was wrong to get this hell mission over with, “So what now?”

“The Turian Hierarchy provides very clear lines of succession” Liara told Shepard, so not all hope was lost. They would just need to find the next person in line to become the Primarch, that wasn’t too hard. At least as long as the next Primarch wasn’t on Palaven still, which was highly unlikely now that she thought about it.

“Right, General Corinthus?”

“With such heavy casualties it’s hard for me to know for certain who the next Primarch will be, Palaven Command will know. However, at the moment contacting them is impossible, The comm tower is out. Husks are swarming that area, we can’t get close enough to repair it.”

“This is the part where you ask me for help. Alright, all I know is I’m not leaving this planet until I know where the Primarch is, I’ll fix your tower.” 

“Thank you Commander, I’ll take care of things on this end, just get that tower operational.”

“Alright team, let’s go.” Taia drew her gun from her back and watched the barrel slide into place in her hands, signalling Liara and James to follow her out the encampment and towards the comm tower, a slight shake in her hands while she processed the things Corinthus said. 

“Shepard. It’s going to be okay, Garrus is strong. You know this.”

“400 men in half an hour. No matter how strong you are that doesn’t make your odds of surviving likely. I know he’s strong and he’s a damn good soldier, one of the best even, but these Reapers are ruthless, they want to destroy every organic being in the galaxy and they won’t stop at some Turian who just happens to be the Reaper killer’s boyfriend. Hell that makes him even more of a target if those bastards like revenge.” Her words sounded like she wanted to scream, to cry out of anger, but her voice was low, she raised it slightly a couple times but not the amount you would expect when hearing those words. James looked stunned at what he just heard and even Liara was taken aback slightly, how was she so calm on the outside. “I assure you, if that motherfucker is found dead I’m going to drag his Turian ass back out of the afterlife myself.” 

The two others nodded, deciding it would be best to get to the action quickly or Shepard might blow a fuse. Sometimes taking your anger out on hordes of Zombie-like creatures is just something soldiers need.

Finally, after walking a short way east they found the tower… And the hoard of husks along with it. Nothing the crew couldn’t handle, they pushed back the hoard enough to be able to get to the tower.

“Liara you know alien tech, see if you can get up there and get that tower working. We’ll keep them off you, buy you enough time to get it running.”

“On it Shepard.” Liara nodded, climbing up the rungs of the ladder to the tech access of the tower.

“Alright James, just you and me and a whole lot of these ugly zombies.” Taia turned to look at her companion, holstering her sniper rifle and unholstering her automatic assault rifle. She dove to cover behind an outcropping of rock, taking out a few husks in the process.

The two managed to make decently quick work of most of the hoard. At one point James looked over to see Shepard bashing the skull of a husk in with the butt of her rifle, covered in the glowing blue ‘blood’. He suddenly realized that she was in fact, not always a calm collected soldier, but also could bring down all the built up rage she had on her enemies. ‘Good thing we did this now, Commander clearly needed it.’

The Commander on the other hand, was just hoping for the mission to be over, she wanted to go back somewhere safe without having to think about worst case scenarios, or the likely scenario in this situation. 

“Almost done Shepard! I just need to… There!” Liara yelled down, moments after the comm tower lit up and the Asari in question slid down the ladder to help take out the remaining hostiles. 2 people dispatched the husks at a decent speed, but 3 people cleared them like it was nothing. 

10 minutes later Shepard was running around the battlefield, collecting ammo off dead Turian soldiers, and dogtags for the General to help identify, and making sure the husks stayed dead. 

After being absolutely positive that she could make sure everything at the comm tower was wrapped up, Shepard signalled the other two to start heading back to the camp, informing Corinthus that they were on the way and, although they assumed he already knew, confirmed to him that the tower was in fact back online.

Once they were back in the encampment they went immediately straight to the General, thinking the current objective was closer than it was in reality. Nothing was ever that simple, Taia didn’t even know why she thought it would be. “Corinthus, what have you got?”

“As your partner said, succession is usually simple. But right now, the Hierarchy is in shambles, so many dead or MIA” Corinthus explained, his voice stern and serious while he spoke. 

“Listen General, I need someone. I don’t care who, as long as they can get us the Turian sources we need to take down these synthetic bastards.” Taia was fed up at this point, there had to be someone capable. Without the Turian support the war would be a quick defeat for the galaxy. 

A Turian soldier who was waiting for orders from Corinthus got a nod from the General, “I’m on it Shepard, we’ll find you the Primarch” He said to her before running past, Shepard looked down at her gun and wiped some husk blood off the butt. She nearly missed it, but Liara nudged her foot and gestured for her to look at a Turian who was walking up the ramp on the opposite side of the shelter towards Corinthus.

It was Garrus, her fear of him being dead washed away inside with joy. But still, she just gasped, not being able to say much more at first. Just glad he was safe. “Garrus!”

Corinthus turned to him, cutting off Taia unintentionally, his tone was surprised, unexpectant even of seeing Garrus, “Vakarian sir- I didn’t see you arrive…” he saluted the other Turian, which Taia thought was odd, why would the General be saluting Garrus? She’d have to ask him about it after.

“At ease, General,” Garrus said before turning to Shepard and her squad, his mouth forming the Turian equivalent of a small smile, tired, but happy to see Taia and her crew. He reached for her hand and shook it, putting his other hand on top of hers. “Hey Tai’”

“Garrus, I thought you were still on Palaven… I didn’t think...I thought you didn’t make it off in time, what are you doing here?” Like Liara, he could tell that Taia was scared. Taia was rarely scared to these levels, though to the unknowing eye she looked completely fine. 

“Well you know me, I’m not easy to kill.” The scarred up Turian chuckled, staring down at Shepard. He was clearly just as glad to see her, though he didn’t say it. They both just stared at each other silently for a second, ‘I missed you’ could wait for later, when they weren’t on a war torn moon. 

“You still didn’t answer my question, Vakarian. Why are you here?” 

“If we lose this moon we lose Palaven, so, naturally since someone decided to bring me along BOTH times she had to deal with Reapers, and I’m the only one who knew anything about them… I’m the closest damn thing to an expert they have here on Reaper forces… So I’m advising. Thanks,” He explained, chuckling slightly when Shepard shot him a look. She still hadn’t pulled her hand away, but to be fair he didn’t either. 

“Well, at least you’re well enough to give me snark,” Taia said, smiling slightly. At least for now she knew he was safe. She didn’t want to move, she just wanted to stay there, but she knew they couldn’t. They had a universe to save, again. 

She wasn’t ready to let go, not yet. Not after the fear she felt moments prior. Instead she moved his hand that he put over hers off and gave him an awkward side-hug, it wasn’t too much for her to feel uncomfortable doing in such a foreign place to her, but enough to make sure she wasn’t dreaming and wasn’t alone. 

She moved from the hug to stand beside Garrus, turning to James, “James, this is Garrus Vakarian, he helped me take down Saren and Sovereign, and the collectors. He’s one hell of a soldier.”

James didn’t say anything, just walked up and shook Garrus’ hand. Simple greeting, of course more appropriate in the middle of warfare. “Lieutenant, good to see you too Liara,”

“Good to see you in one piece, Garrus,” The Asari replied, stepping forward. Her and Garrus have been on Shepard’s team since the very beginning, so it was only fair that she was more casual when greeting an old friend. 

“Vakarian sir, Palaven Command tells me that the next Primarch is General Adrien Victus”

“Victus? His name’s crossed my desk a few times.” Liara sounded curious, Taia nearly forgot she became the next Shadow Broker, the biggest information broker in the galaxy. No doubt she’s heard of probably everyone and everything. 

“Know him Garrus?”

“I was fighting alongside him this morning”

“This morning? You know where he is now?”

“No, we got separated. He went to bolster a flank that was breaking, he could be anywhere by now.” 

“Vakarian sir, we’re trying to raise Victus now.” General Corinthus said, interrupting the back and forth while working on a terminal.  
“Uh Boss- One of those big fucking Reaper creatures just dropped something! We better get over there. Fast!” James yelled from outside the shelter that Corinthus had his war table in. 

“You coming Garrus?” Taia turned to the Turian, a small smirk dawned her lips. She may have been terrified out of her mind, she had never seen half of these Reaper creatures before, but she had to admit how much it felt like old times. 

“Are you kidding? I’m right behind you.”

Once they were sure Liara would get back to The Normandy safely James, Garrus and Taia headed toward the barricade that the Harvester dropped something at. It was a bundle of nasties no doubt about it, the question was what nasties. Shepard didn’t want to find out, but it was her job and she’d be damned if they lost another Turian Primarch today, no matter what, she was going to find Victus and haul his Turian ass back onto the Normandy. 

“More husks, damn it I hate these things.” James groaned, looking down over the barricade at another hoard of the zombie-like creatures quickly approaching them, “Boss, get on that turret, it’ll be a lot easier to wipe these bastards out with that on our side.”

“Good idea Lieutenant. Let’s send these creatures back to wherever they came from,”

The battle went quite a bit faster once they got the turret working, that was until a Brute rammed against the barricade and forcefully caused the trio to fall onto the battlefield. 

“What the fuck is that?!” Taia was in complete shock, she had never encountered one of these… Things before, it was a lumbering beast, probably 8-10 feet tall and ANGRY. She quickly composed herself and did the only logical thing and tried to get far enough out of it’s direct line of sight as she could.

“The soldiers call them brutes, stay out of its line of sight, we lost 3 men at once after they got charged by it yesterday, nasty buggers, just shows us what horrors the Reapers are capable of creating, and why we need to stop them… Again,” 

Bullet after bullet didn’t seem to work in taking down the creature, so they resorted to the next best thing, grenades, biotic powers and mines. Finally, with a final use of Carnage from James, the lumbering synthetic beast collapsed, dead.

Taia slowly crept out from her cover to take a look at the body, to see if there was any hope that it held some sort of Reaper secret they could exploit, but alas, nothing. It wasn’t like she expected to find something, but she was still disappointed nonetheless. 

“Alright, we’d better get a move on, Reapers aren’t known to wait. On your guard team, let’s move out.”

The trio followed a small makeshift path on the side of a cliff, at least while they were on said path, any husks that clawed their way up the cliff could easily be kicked off or shot in the head before they could even try to attack. Garrus filled them in on Palaven’s, and what had happened since his last call with Shepard.

“Damn it- look at Palaven, that blaze of orange, the big one I mean- that’s where I was born” Garrus said, staring up at the planet, James and Taia turned to look, their hearts sinking. It didn’t even look habitable at this point from space, it just looked like one hellish pit of fire, they didn’t want to think about what it was like actually on the planet. Just that it wasn’t even slightly good. 

“Damn that’s rough, have any family there?” James asked Garrus, sometimes Taia swore this man didn’t know what was and wasn’t appropriate to ask on the battlefield.

“My dad, and a sister.”

“How bad is it?”

“Three million lost the first day, Five million on the second,”

“How’s your military holding up?” Taia joined in on the conversation, also trying to distract Garrus from the fact that his family was in that hell. She knew he didn’t especially like his father, but he was still family to Garrus.

“Look around, that should give you well enough of an idea, Tai’.” There was a slight venom to Garrus’ voice. She understood why but it took her back a bit, he was known for being calm and warm, for him to snap at people he cared about was completely out of character. 

“Well you’re putting up a good fight,” the corners of her lips ever so barely formed a frown and her shoulders shifted a bit in a way most would see as cracking her back. But her friends would recognize it as something else, a way to show awkwardness in public without looking a fool to everyone around her.

“For now, how long until the fight is kicked out of you?” He must’ve noticed her slight reaction, realizing it sounded as though he was mad at her and cleared his throat, “If only they’d listened to you about the Reapers. You know. Three years ago, and again, six months ago”

James interrupted the two, looking up at an actual Reaper in the distance that was aiming its laser at Palaven, “Shit! I hate those things! And New York is crawling with those creepy bastards?!” Taia braced herself for the sound of the Reaper’s laser, hearing James groan beside her, “Never shoulda left Earth!” 

“It’ll be bad everywhere Lieutenant,”

“Yeah James, plus while you’re with us you’re actually doing something productive to stop ‘these creepy bastards’. On earth you’d just be fighting for your life. Both of us would be. There’s no point wasting our lives in a one-sided battle when we can save the galaxy once and for all.”

“Leaving the fight still just pisses me off,”

“Yet here you are planning on asking Victus to do the exact same thing, leave the fight to make nice in some boardroom,” Taia could hear Garrus’ patience running thin, she couldn’t blame him. Not after what the two of them have seen, what he’s probably seen just in the past few days. But this summit was the only chance they had at a start to stop the Reapers. 

“Garrus, you know this summit is the only chance we’ve got, none of us are beating the Reapers alone. James, stop complaining about missing the fight, you’ll find plenty of it running with me but it’s not appropriate when a planet is under attack right in front of us and our time is running out. Let’s just get a move on and find Victus.”

The team moved on down the path, they stopped briefly to look at a fallen fleet ship, a big one at that. There weren’t any survivors, so reluctantly they kept on down the path towards the compound some soldiers said they saw Victus at.

Taia was getting more and more worried about the situation, the destruction and chaos seemed to outnumber the good they were doing. She hated to admit it but Garrus was right about what he said, there’s only so much fight left in a person until it’s kicked out.

The group was nearing a rock overpass of sorts, not long enough to be a tunnel but that’s the best way Shepard could describe it. The amount of enemies they had encountered in the past 5 minutes, though it could be that they were all busy attacking the compound. She wasn’t mad about the peace and quiet, but it was too quiet. Or at least it was until she realized a Turian shuttle crashed about 10 feet in front of them. 

“That was a little closer than I’d like!” Garrus shouted as the crew stumbled back from the impact shock, Taia and James just gave him a ‘No shit, sherlock’ look before the Commander went to have a closer look.

“No survivors,” Shepard confirmed, looking over the crash sight. If they were even slightly quicker it would have hit them. That would have complicated things, a lot. She jokingly turned to James, her lips pulling into a smart-ass half smile, “Jeez Vega, at this rate I’m going to start thinking you’re just a magnet for shuttle crashes,”

“Oh come on boss, if I didn’t crash that shuttle the robo-chic would have made off with the Prothean data and killed Major Alenko, if anything I did you a favour-”

“That was a joke, James.”

“Right. Sorry it’s just so hard to tell with your whole… minimal expression thing- hey how do you even do that without breaking?”

“Years of training. It’s not that hard to understand Vega, surely, I mean it’s just like a talent of sorts. Except I see it as a survival tactic, if the enemy sees a sign of weakness, or a vantage point that would hurt you through reading your emotions you’re more likely to lose and become sloppy.” Shepard explained, continuing down the path as she did so.

“Surely you aren’t always stoic, you can’t be. It’s impossible!”

“I’m not emotionless if that’s what you’re asking. I just prefer to save it until I’m at home, on The Normandy. You’ll see soon enough Vega, now come on. I hear fighting up ahead, stay on guard.”

The group quietly crept behind a barricade to assess the situation. Marauders and Husks were swarming the area, dozens of Turian soldiers corpses were on the ground and those remaining had resorted to climbing on the shelter-like structures they used instead of tents to avoid being mauled. 

“Vega, get your grenades and focus them on large clusters of them. Garrus, get on top of the cliff behind us, I’ll climb one of the shelters to get a good angle, we’ll take out any that get too close to James or any remaining soldiers and scattered husks. Move out,”

The tactic worked well for the most part, James got a few husks head on, but nothing they couldn’t dispose of before he was seriously injured. Plus he was a tank, close quarters combat was one thing he was trained for, as a heavy soldier and all. Much unlike Taia and her Infiltrator Sniper and Submachine Gun training, or Garrus’ own sniper training. 

After the last Marauder was shot down, and the group’s horrible realization that the Marauders were twisted Turians, riddled with Reaper changes, barely looking like the original species at that point. Sick fucks, was it not enough for them to try and eradicate organic species, now they try and Reaper-ize them too?  
“Shepard, there’s Victus over there. I’d suggest we hurry up before more Reaper troops get here.” Garrus pointed out a tall older Turian in red armor coming out of a shelter with a few men once he thought the coast was clear.

“General Victus.” Taia climbed down from the structure carefully before speed-walking across the encampment to meet the General, or technically the new Primarch.

The General was a stern man, Taia didn’t mind that. Stern military folk were generally easier to get the point across to. Another reason why she preferred masking her emotions herself. But even she had to admit he seemed, as Joker would describe it, “Like he had a stick shoved up his ass,”

“ Ah, Commander, I know who you are. Can’t wait to find out why you’re out here.” There was annoyance in his voice, which didn’t really sit well with Taia considering her group just saved their team. She didn’t even open her mouth to answer before he turned to Garrus, “Vakarian-- Where did you go?”

Garrus shifted his weight and looked at the older Turian, watched him shift a bit before answering the General with a bit of a tone, guess he picked up on the tone Victus gave the squad even after they assisted him, “Heavy Reaper unit on the right flank. I believe your exact words were ‘Get that thing the hell off my men’,”

Victus’ attitude seemed to double after Garrus gave some snark, he spoke between gritted teeth, “Appreciate it,” Taia felt as though she was watching a stand off between two krogan, if krogan were more well mannered and passive agressive instead of resorting to battle immediately. 

She thought it would be best to end the stand off by butting in, “General, you’re needed off planet. I’ve been sent to come get you,”

“Listen Commander, it’ll take something beyond important for me to leave my men, or my brothers and sisters in their fight.”

Garrus jumped in, “Fedorian was killed, you’re the next Primarch.”

Taia nodded and continued on, explaining the situation, “You’re needed immediately to chair a summit and represent your people in the fight against the Reapers,”

Victus looked deep in thought and walked past Shepard and her crew to stare at Palaven, at the angry orange and red flares all over the planet showing just how bad the destruction had gotten. Shepard watched as he shook his head slightly, his tone no longer cold and rude but instead sounded like it was in pure shock, “I’m… Primarch of Palaven? Negotiating for the Turian Hierarchy..?” 

“Yes.” She said, it was best to be blunt when delivering important news like this, especially considering the Reaper forces could return any second.

“I’ve spent my whole life in the Military. I’m no Diplomat… I hate Diplomats.”

“You sound perfect then, in this war we don’t need Diplomatic people who haven’t seen the horrors of war, we need people who have experienced it firsthand. Like you sir,”

He looked deep in thought for a moment, Shepard was afraid that he would argue some more and waste more time when they could be on the way back to safety. Finally he sighed and looked back down at her, “Let me say goodbye to my men.”

Taia was glad that the mission went mostly smoothly, about as smooth as trying to find one man in the middle of a galactic warzone could go she supposed, the important thing was that they were one step closer to finding a way to get rid of the reapers. It was also relieving to know that Garrus was alive, and coming with her. Her stresses seemed a little easier to cope with now that someone she could trust the most was there to help.

Once she had signaled for Cortez to come get them in a relatively safe area, one that was relatively sheltered from any of the actual Reapers so they wouldn’t be blasted out of the sky while getting back to the Normandy. The group still stared in horror at the screen that was showing footage of Palaven, Shepard decided it would be easier to just turn it off and sit in silence for the rest of the ride back.

The new Primarch went to the War Room almost immediately, Taia followed in suit, she had sort of anticipated that he wanted to get the diplomatic stuff done and over with so he could relax a bit. She was only on Menae for a couple hours tops and even she felt like she needed a massive break, she couldn’t imagine how Primarch Victus felt after living in that hell for days on end. 

“Victus sir.”

“Commander Shepard, Thank you for letting me make use of your ship… And going along with this plan,” Victus seemed a lot less of a dick now that he was out of the heat of battle. It was probably the relief of being safe for the first time in awhile. “Garrus said he had to attend to The Normandy's weapons systems… Something about ‘Calibrations’, I think he also mentioned that he wished to speak with you once you were done here.”

“Sounds like Garrus,” Shepard smiled slightly, remembering how he was obsessed with Calibrating the Normandy’s weapons during their fight against the Collectors. How he said ‘These Cerberus rookies know nothing about how to calibrate a weapons system, if you want something done right you have to do it yourself.’ It was now a sort of running joke between them. “I’ll go see what he wants to talk to me about, also I don’t mind letting you use the ship’s resources. The Turians are in just as much need as the humans, we need to help each other if we want to win this.”

“Amen to that Commander, now. I have things to attend to with my new.... Position, you go do what you need to do,”

Shepard nodded and gave Victus a salute before walking out of the war room and towards the elevator to go to the crew deck, the entire elevator ride down she felt a bit nervous, what if their time apart had caused a rift and now her feelings were unrequited? Sure, it was unlikely. But human brains often thought of worst-case scenarios in times that they were unhelpful. 

She stepped out of the elevator and took a deep breath before walking through the mess hall and to the Normandy weapons room, composing herself before letting the door open. Garrus was talking to Victus on the comm while he worked, something about the numbers not looking good on Palaven. She leaned against the wall and waited for them to finish, she wasn’t one too keen on interrupting, and given the topic she thought it would be even more so impolite.  
It wasn’t long until Primarch Victus hopped off the comm, said he had to contact Palaven command about something involving his new position as Primarch. 

Taia cleared her throat, causing Garrus to look up and set the wrench he was using down. “Garrus, didn’t waste any time getting to work I see,”

“After what I’ve been through lately, calibrating a giant gun is a Vacation, gives me something to focus on,”

“Garrus you realize we’re going to need you for more than your aim.”

“Oh I’m ready for it,” Garrus shifted his weight and fully turned to face Shepard, “But I’m pretty sure we’re still going to need giant guns, and a lot of them.”

“Can’t argue with that,” He wasn’t wrong, Taia just supposed that he would be taking a bit to rest first before getting back into work. The pair stood awkwardly in silence for a minute before Garrus broke it. 

“Yeah… So… Is this the part where we… Shake hands? Wasn’t sure about the protocol on reunions, or if you even felt the same way about me- The scars are starting to fade… I remember they drove you wild…”

Taia started laughing, Garrus always did jokingly blame the scars for the reason they were together due to the timeline between him getting them and them starting to flirt was very close. 

He stepped closer to Taia, “... But I can go out and get all new ones if it’ll help,” 

“Oh god, please don’t, I’d have to get after you for being so stupid again.” She smiled, pausing briefly, “but I haven’t forgotten our time together Garrus.”

“Well, I’ve been doing some more research on human customs. I didn’t want… to presume anything-”

Before he could ramble on and make things awkward, Taia looked up and kissed him, it was short and sweet, but still managed to make the Turian freeze up for a second. He always did seem to forget how Tai’ could be so forward in times that definitely needed it.

“That’s the protocol on reunions,” she said, small smile turning into a full on smirk once she finished speaking, she wasn’t lying when she said missed these interactions.

“The vids… mentioned it might go something like that… I had hoped it would- I mean, I didn’t know-” He sighed, his words clearly not coming out how he wanted, he started to look towards his feet out of embarrassment but Taia stepped forward and grabbed his hands, looking up into his eyes. 

“I… I can’t promise how things will end out, at least not with this war. But I’ve missed you Garrus, and I’ve thought about you a lot.”

“Heh, good to know my romantic uh… skills made an impression, because it’s going to take more than Reapers to come between this cross-species liaison.”

“Don’t make me laugh, I care about you Garrus but you have about the same romantic skills as a Pyjak drunk on ryncol,” Taia teased him, and he scoffed at pretending to look hurt. 

“You wound me, I’m not that bad.”

Taia chuckled and gave him a look, “Moving on… You’re an ‘Expert advisor’ on Reapers now?”

“It’s not as impressive as it sounds, I ruffled a few feathers, so they gave me a token title and a token task force so I’d shut up.” He moved to flip a few switches on a circuit board, now multitasking between calibrating a giant gun and conversing with Shepard.

“And how’d you manage that?”

“Just followed your example Tai’. Yell loud enough, and someone will eventually come over and see what all the fuss is about. Not that they’ll actually do anything about it.”  
“Until hell shows up at their door. Then they put you in charge,”

Garrus chuckled briefly, “Not like the old days is it? Rogue Spectre and C-Sec agent running and gunning outside the lines, making it up as we go, hurling constant insults and arguments at each other.” He stopped walking and turned to the Commander again, “We’re actually respectable now,”

“Yeah, I have a feeling that respect comes with a lot of sleepless nights, I can’t even count how many lives are counting on us Garrus,”

“Well- when things are looking grim, and I’m pretty sure they will-- just remember,” Garrus took a few steps towards Taia, locking eyes with her, “We’re in this together, and if it ends in both of us dying in a giant explosion taking out a Reaper, remember I took the killshot.”

The two caught up a bit more, talking about what’s happened with them and their plans, also just enjoying a nice quiet bit of each other’s company without it all going to hell for once. The two of them both clearly needed it at that moment in time.

“Well, that’s all for now Garrus… But stay close, we have some catching up to do.” 

“You know where to find me, and this time… I can afford the good stuff, there are a few perks in being an Expert Reaper Advisor,” He pulled a bottle of fancy human wine out from under his desk, it surprised Taia, and she almost felt a little bit bad that he bought something so expensive that he couldn’t even enjoy himself.

“ Garrus, you didn’t have to spend your money on that, you can’t even drink it, you’d die remember? And I don’t really want to have to have them put ‘death by wine’ on your headstone.”

“Well, there is some Turian brandy in the lounge, I could always drink that. That way you won’t feel bad for getting drunk without me, and we can both still have some fun.”

“Deal.” 

With that, they went their separate ways… or well, shepard left the Main Battery and Garrus got back to his Calibrations. It was good of them to have that time to themselves, especially considering the hell that was to come.


End file.
